


Not Alone

by a_porkcutletbowl_fatale



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M, Mental Illness, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Pets, Romance, Therapy Pet, but healing, multiple POVs, slight references to period typical attitudes, slight use of outdated language, teasing percy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 20:41:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29863779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_porkcutletbowl_fatale/pseuds/a_porkcutletbowl_fatale
Summary: Nico had been getting better. It's been slow going, but his relationship with Will is going well, he's finally comfortable at Camp Half-Blood, and he's learning to be okay again. In wanders a scraggly stray cat, who takes an immediate liking to Nico, and he grows attached quickly. She just might be the final piece in the puzzle of Nico's ongoing recovery.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase & Nico di Angelo, Nico di Angelo & Percy Jackson, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 4
Kudos: 64





	1. Chapter 1: Will

**Author's Note:**

> This all started because I had a friendly argument with a friend about whether Nico is a dog person or a cat person. Personally I love cats and having a cat around has always been good for my own mental health. And so I wrote this, and my friend told me I should post it, so here it is! I tried to keep it relatively lighthearted and appropriate. I hope you enjoy it :)

At first Will didn’t notice anything unusual when he opened the door to cabin thirteen to wake Nico up for breakfast. It was dark inside, as always, and it took his eyes a moment to adjust, but movement quickly caught his eye from on top of Nico’s sheets, and immediately Will was on guard. He crept quietly forward, trying to make out the shape that was resting right in the crook behind Nico’s bent legs. 

The creature’s triangle ears twitched as if it heard Will coming, and when he stepped on a slightly creaky floorboard the creature's head whipped around to look at him, and he was struck by a pair of bright yellow eyes with vertical pupils. Will nearly jumped out of his skin, but quickly calmed himself down.

_ A cat _ . 

How in the Hades had a cat managed to get into Nico’s cabin? And the even more pressing question was  _ why _ ? Nico usually avoided animals like the plague, claiming they didn’t like him because he smelled like death. Will had never thought he smelled like that, but he figured animals must have different senses then him, because it sort of made sense. The kid was a walking ghost magnet. 

Will stood there, confused and surprised, wondering what he should do. He still ought to wake up Nico. If he didn’t he would sleep all day and miss half his meals, and Will couldn’t have him binging all the necessary calories in one go at dinner time. But something about Nico looked unusually peaceful, like he had slept soundly through the night without a single nightmare to bother him, which was a rare occurrence. It made Will feel uncomfortable to wake him up. Nico still needed more sleep than most people, taking several naps throughout the day, and Will didn’t want to disturb such a rare, peaceful sleep.

But the cat had finished sizing Will up, and it opened its jaws wide in a dramatic yawn before standing up and stretching luxuriously next to Nico. Then it sat up, curled its tail around it’s paws, and began to purr loudly. It could have been the cat’s movement, or it could have been the sunlight coming in from the door, but Nico began to stir. He grumbled something under his breath, then he flopped over so he was facing Will and opened his eyes. His messy dark hair stuck up at all sorts of funny angles, and as usual, Will was struck with the desire to smooth it all out with his own hands. Nico blinked harshly against the light, and then roughly rubbed the heels of his palms into his eyes, trying to rub away the sleepiness. He always did everything a little more harshly than necessary, from just walking from one place to another, to practicing his swordsmanship in the arena with Percy. 

“You know that’s bad for your eyes, sunshine,” Will reprimanded him, unable to help himself from playing doctor outside the infirmary every once in a while. “And you’ll have wrinkles like an old man by the time you’re eighteen.”

“I’m already an old man,” Nico mumbled. “And I don’t care about wrinkles.” He squinted at the door. “Close that thing before Bia gets out.” 

“Bia?” Will said stupidly. 

“The cat, you idiot,” Nico replied. “Shut the door before she gets out.”

Will nodded, and turned around to shut the door, but he made sure to flick on the cabin light to replace the glow from the morning sun, which made Nico groan again as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. Despite his harsh words towards Will (which Will didn’t mind, because he knew he was only grumpy from being woken up), and his tendency to be rough with himself and fierce in battle, the way Nico touched the cat made Will’s heart sing. It was gentle, and tender, and the cat rubbed it’s head pleasantly against Nico, asking to be pet more. Will had never seen Nico be so gentle with another creature, except the rare occasion when the two of them shared an intimate moment, and that felt different. In those instances, it almost felt like Nico was scared of hurting Will by getting too close, like he feared Will would disappear if he held onto him for too long. And Will could almost understand that. He had almost lost Nico multiple times himself. But the way he interacted with the cat was different. He was gentle just because that’s what the cat wanted. Will hadn’t interacted with a lot of cats in his life, but he knew they weren’t like dogs. You couldn’t pet them the same way. 

Will stood awkwardly near the door, not entirely sure what to do. He wanted to ask Nico a million questions, (Seriously,  _ where _ the heck did the cat even come from??), but he just watched his boyfriend as he scratched the cat under its chin, the smallest of smiles playing on Nico’s lips. 

Finally, Nico yawned, almost as big as the cat had, and he stretched. He threw the blankets off of him and stood up to go to the bathroom. 

“I’ll just be a few minutes.” Nico said, brushing his hand softly over the cat once more as he walked away. 

The cat turned its piercing gaze back onto Will, and for some reason Will felt like he was being sized up, like he was a normal kid meeting his boyfriend’s normal parents for the first time, and Nico’s dad owned a gun and he would be sure to mention it. He had been too young to date when he left Texas to come to camp half blood, but he imagined that to be a normal scene there, when someone’s kid brought home a boy for the first time.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Will said to the cat. “I was with him first.” 

“What?” Nico called from the bathroom, and Will cringed. That was stupid. It was just a cat.

“Nothing!” He called back in response. 

Shaking his head, Will went and sat on the edge of Nico’s bed. The cat sniffed him curiously, and then it bumped its head on Will’s thigh, the same way it had asked Nico to be pet before, and Will obliged. The cat started to purr loudly again, and Will couldn’t help but smile as he scratched the top of its head. He could see the appeal of the creature, even more so when he observed it closely and realized that it shared a lot of similarities with Nico, and his doctor instincts kicked in slightly as he ran his hands over the cat’s bony back. 

The thing was scrawny. Obviously it was a stray, and Will could only imagine what it’d had to eat if it had been wandering around camp half blood. Like Nico had been only a few months before, it was a shell of what it should have been, for a cat its size. Maybe it was naturally sort of lanky, also like Nico was, but that made its obvious starvation look that much worse. It had a notch in one of its ears that connected to a deep scar that ran almost all the way down, as if it had been in a fight where something else had torn its ear in half. It made it look sort of roguish, like it had a war torn past. In that sense, it would certainly fit in a camp half blood. But the thing that reminded Will of Nico the most was its glossy black fur, which stood up at strange angles just like Nico’s hair right after he woke up. Will wondered if the cat even bothered to groom itself, or if it had been too hungry and scared to do so.

Nico came out of the bathroom, with his hair lying a little flatter and the eye boogers cleaned out of his tear ducts. He started throwing on his camp clothes (he always wore long black things, despite the temperature, and it made Will a bit nervous), and Will waited silently for him to give an explanation about the cat, but he didn’t. So finally Will cleared his throat, which made Nico look up at him curiously, while he was half way through pulling on his socks. 

“So?” Will prompted, hoping Nico would get the hint himself. But he didn’t.

“So?” Nico only repeated his own words back to him.

Will sighed. He would have to just ask. “Where did the cat come from?”

“Oh,” Nico looked back down sheepishly, and he continued to pull on his socks and shoes. “I found her in the forest last night.” As if on cue, the cat jumped off the bed and trotted over to Nico for more pets. “Or she found me, is more like it. She nearly scared me half to death, because she was just yowling when she ran up to me.” Nico was looking at her affectionately, almost the same way he sometimes looked at Will when he told a corny joke or tried to sing with his brothers and sisters. Will had to stifle down a stupid little feeling of jealousy. 

“What were you doing out in the forest last night?” Will asked, unable to keep the accusatory tone out of his voice. 

“I was only going for a walk,” Nico huffed. “I just couldn’t sleep. I promise I wasn’t doing anything you told me not to.” He was referring to the rules that Will had given him, as his doctor. Things that made him sick and weak, that made boyfriend Will sad and doctor Will frustrated. Underworld stuff. 

“Wandering around alone in the forest at night should have been one of the things I told you not to do.” Will knew he was pouting, but he didn’t try and stop himself. It usually worked on Nico, and Nico’s complete lack of instinct for self-preservation scared him more often than not. “When are you going to get it in your head that you can’t be putting yourself in danger for no reason? It scares me, Nico. It scares your friends too.” 

Nico had the decency to look ashamed. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t mean to scare you, you know that, right?”

“You could have woken me up or something. I would have gone with you if you wanted to go for a walk.”

Nico snorted. “Please. You rise and set with the sun. You wouldn’t like being in the forest at night. You’re not a child of Artemis.”

“I would have gone with you though, if you had asked me too.”

For a moment they only looked at each other, and something passed between them. An understanding of sorts. The moment was cut short, however, with an insistent meow from the cat. 

“Sorry,” Nico said sweetly, and he rubbed her chin, but she only meowed harshly again. “What is it?” Nico asked her. He seemed confused, and Will looked her over once more, again noting how skinny she was, and wondered why Nico couldn’t tell what she wanted. It didn’t take a doctor’s training to know when an animal was starving. But then, Nico had a close personal relationship with hunger. And homelessness for that matter. 

“She’s probably hungry,” Will said, and the cat looked at him and then back to Nico with a pleading expression, as if she had understood what Will had said. 

Nico shook his head and rubbed his eyes again. “Of course,” he mumbled, speaking more to himself than to Will or the cat. 

“Did you feed her last night at all?” Will asked, already knowing the answer.

“No,” Nico said, sounding a little guilty. “She just seemed interested in having company. When I brought her back here all she wanted to do was… snuggle.” The word sounded weird coming from Nico’s mouth. He wasn’t naturally an affectionate person, but he seemed to have broken that rule for the cat more easily than he had even for Will. 

“We’ll bring her back something after breakfast.” Will told him. He stood up and walked over to Nico, holding out a hand to help him up off the floor. “We should go now, or we’ll miss it. And I’m starving.” The cat half-meowed/half-growled at him, and he looked at her with a half-smile. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to offend.” 

In the dining pavilion, Nico and Will went to their respective tables, but they went to the fire to make their offering at the same time. 

“I asked my sister what we could feed her,” Will said quietly. Nico gave him a frightened look, but he quickly reassured him. “I was subtle, don’t worry. Her mom fosters stray cats back home, it’s easy to get her to talk about it. She said eggs are good if you don’t have proper cat food.”

Nico nodded, and scrapped a small part of his plate in the fire. 

“By the way, what did you call her again?” Will asked.

“Bia.”

It seemed like an odd name. Maybe it was old Italian. Will wondered if he should ask what it meant, but he didn’t get a chance too, because Nico had turned and walked back to his table before he could ask. When he passed by on the way to his own table, Will noticed that there were now scrambled eggs on Nico’s plate.

Back in the cabin, they found Bia curbed up on Nico’s pillow, her tail covering her face, but when they came into the room she woke up immediately and began to sniff the air, her jaws parted to take in more scent. She could clearly smell the eggs.

It had been easy for Nico to take the plate out of the pavilion. He’d had issues with food before, since he nearly starved to death on more than one occasion. Transitioning from eating nothing at all to eating full, normal meals again had been a slow process, so no one blinked an eye when he took extra food back to his cabin with him, or when he didn’t show up to meals and Will had to bring him a plate. 

As soon as Nico put the plate down on the floor, Bia leapt off the bed and raced over to it. She was clearly ravenous, and the eggs were gone in what felt like only seconds. Nico had known better than to put too much on the plate, knowing all too well what happens when a malnourished person consumes too much in one go. It wasn’t fun. They would bring Bia a little more food after lunch. 

Still, when she had licked the plate clean and sniffed around to make sure there was, in fact, nothing left, she lifted her gaze up to the two boys and let out a pleading, pitiful meow, as if begging for more. Nico looked at her like his heart might break, and Will shook his head firmly.

“Sorry little gal,” Will said. “You gotta take it slow. You can have more in a little while.”

Nico looked at him with a playful smile on his face. “Are you going to start training to be a veterinarian now?”

Will hummed as he considered what Nico said. It was clearly meant to be a joke, but still… “It wouldn’t hurt to read up on animal medicine a little bit.”

“You won’t tell anyone, will you? I don’t think Mr. D would be too happy about someone having an animal in the cabin.” 

“Of course not, silly,” Will said. “But it might not be easy to keep her a secret forever.”

Nico signed. Instead of responding, he went to the bathroom to fill up a shallow bowl, which he had also brought from the dining pavilion, with water. He set it down next to Bia and sat down on his bed. He signed again.

“I just don’t want him to take her away,” Nico confessed. “Having her with me is… really comforting. I didn’t have a single nightmare last night, and I think it’s because she was with me. It’s easier when I’m not alone.”

Will went over to the bed to sit next to him. A part of him felt sad, that he couldn’t be the one to be there while Nico slept, to make him feel safe enough to do so. But they both knew it wouldn’t be appropriate. Boys and girls who weren’t siblings weren’t allowed to sleep alone in a cabin together, and it wouldn’t be fair for Nico and Will to push the rules, simply because it didn’t  _ technically _ apply to the two of them. They already pushed their luck in situations like this, and it wouldn’t set a very good example for the younger kids. But still, Will always felt a little better when Hazel came to visit, knowing that Nico didn’t have to be alone. Maybe having Bia with him would be a good second option for when Hazel wasn’t there. 

As he considered that, a thought occurred to Will. “Did you call her Bia after your other sister?” Will had hardly known Bianca, since she had barely been in camp for a couple of days. He honestly didn’t even know if he knew what she looked like. But he knew how much her death had affected Nico. Her name was the one he cried out most when Will accidentally woke him up in the middle of a dream. 

Nico only shrugged, but Will knew he was right. He didn’t push though. He only wrapped an arm around Nico’s shoulders and let Nico rest their heads together. They sat together quietly, just existing in each other's company, until a gross, wet sound interrupted their moment. 

They looked over at Bia where she was peeing on the floor in a corner. “Oops,” said Nico.

Will tutted, scowling. “If you’re keeping her you need to get her the stuff she needs. Starting with a litter box.”


	2. Chapter 2: Percy

Percy was looking for Nico. He had promised to help teach the younger kids some sword fighting techniques today, but he was late. The kids had been so excited to have lessons from the prince of the underworld, who barely deigned to even look at anyone who wasn’t Will, or one of his close friends, on most days. It had taken Percy forever to convince him to help give the lessons, and then he hadn’t even shown up. But Percy was determined. He would get him out to the arena if it was the last thing he did. 

In hindsight, the first place Percy should have looked was Nico’s cabin, but instead he had looked all the places he might have found Will, because the two were practically inseparable these days, and Will usually had more obligations than Nico. Percy had checked the infirmary first, and then the Apollo cabin. He had even checked the archery range before finally thinking to check cabin thirteen. And when he reached the door, he almost reconsidered bothering Nico, because the sound he heard was so unusual he didn’t want to be the one to stop it. 

Nico was laughing. He could hear two laughs actually, one obviously being Will’s, but it was Nico’s laughter that Percy fixated on. Had he ever even heard the kid laugh after his sister had died? He honestly wasn’t sure. He had certainly never heard him laugh _like that_ , so freely, and so genuinely. Like he was genuinely just having a good time. Percy couldn’t fathom what could possibly be making him laugh like that, but he also vaguely heard the sound of a tiny bell jingling and wondered if that had something to do with that.

Already feeling sort of guilty for cutting them off, Percy raised his fist and knocked on the door. The sounds inside the cabin immediately went dead, and someone swore before there was some quick shuffling, and the sound of a door being quickly slammed shut. 

Then the cabin door opened, and Nico stood in front of Percy, trying to block Percy’s view of the cabin. 

“Hey Percy,” Nico said. “What’s up?”

“First of all,” Percy replied. “Don’t even bother trying to pretend Will isn’t in there with you. I heard him.” Nico’s face fell, as if that wasn’t actually what he had been trying to hide and he’d forgotten about that rule entirely. Percy gave him a sly smile. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell. I’m happy to see that you two are so… comfortable. Together.”

Nico scowled and punched him roughly in the arm as Will appeared behind him and waved to Percy with a smile on his face. 

“Hey!” Percy protested. “I need that arm for sword fighting, which is where you and I are both supposed to be right now!”

“Shoot,” Nico said. “I’m sorry, I completely forgot.”

“Yeah well, don’t let Will _distract_ you again.” Percy said. He had to dodge out of the way as Nico tried to punch him again. “The kids are really looking forward to getting lessons from you.”

Nico sighed dramatically. “Fine. Let me just grab my sword and I’ll be right out.” He tried to subtly give Will’s hand a squeeze as he walked by, but it didn’t escape Percy’s notice. Percy, however, decided not to mention it. Nico was just picking up his blade when a high pitched, distinctly feline cry came from behind the bathroom door, and he froze in place. 

Percy stepped into the cabin, noticing for the first time that there were two metal bowls in the corner of the room. One had water in it and one had what looked like the remains of a badly made meatloaf. There was also a bright pink plastic fishing pole with multi-coloured feathers and a small bell on the end sitting on Nico’s bed. That must have been what Percy heard before he knocked. 

Nico just stared at him with an unreadable expression as he walked over to the bathroom door and pulled it open. Instantly a small dark shape raced out and pelted straight for Nico, weaving in between his legs and meowing happily.

“Welp,” said Will. “Guess the cat’s out of the bag.” Nico shot Will a look that said _You’re going to regret that joke later_. “Percy, Meet Bia.”

Percy just looked at the cat on the ground. It seemed absolutely enamored with Nico. No animal had ever approached him like that. Funnily enough, with her shiny black fur and lithe frame, she reminded Percy of Nico a lot, and his sister Bianca. 

“Where did you get her?” Percy asked. He sat down on the floor, hoping that maybe she would come say hi to him. And after a moment of staring him down, she did. He tentatively pet her on the back.

“Nico found her in the forest a few nights ago.” Will answered for Nico, who was fiddling anxiously with his sword. “She was half starved and she pretty much adopted him.”

“She looks really young.” Percy remarked. “Maybe she escaped a local farm and wandered too far away.”

“She might still be young,” Will said. “But she might just be small because she went hungry for so long.” He glanced briefly at Nico, and Percy understood why. Nico was one of the older campers, but he was still smaller than some of the kids who were only claimed that summer. And despite having gained back enough weight that he no longer looked like a zombie, he was still pretty thin. Will must chalk it up to him going hungry so often, when he had run away after his sister died, and when he had genuinely almost starved to death. 

“She should also get fixed sooner rather than later,” Will said nonchalantly, as if making a note to himself. “She’s definitely old enough to go into heat.”

Percy grinned. “A human doctor _and_ an animal doctor? That’s impressive at your age, Solace.”

Nico finally spoke. “He’s been reading up on animal medicine.”

“Of course he has.”

“Well one of us has to know how to take care of her. You went into town to get her supplies and didn’t even come back with cat food. She’s been eating your leftovers every day.”

Percy was surprised. “Mr. D approved a shopping trip for your pet cat?”

Nico looked at Will. “Mr. D doesn’t know.” He mumbled. “I um… sort of shadow travelled out of camp.”

Will glared at him. “Yeah, and it cost me an entire infirmary shift by myself while you slept it off. Do you know how boring it is in there when there isn’t a war going on? I didn’t even have anyone to talk to while I dealt with the Aphrodite kids head lice problem. Can you even imagine what they were like? Out of all the cabins to have a head lice outbreak, it just _had_ to be that one. It took me hours to convince them that washing their hair twice a day wasn’t going to get rid of it.”

“Oh come on,” Nico scoffed. “I’m sure you must have managed fine before you started dragging me along.”

Percy listened to them bickering for a while and smiled to himself. But as much as he enjoyed listening to Nico fight about something that wasn’t literally life or death, he still needed to get the kid to the arena, or those campers were going to have his head. 

“So,” Percy interrupted them. “I’m going to ignore the part where Mr. D doesn’t know you’re keeping an illegal cat in your cabin, and just remind you that there are still kids in the arena waiting for a sword-fighting lesson from the Prince of the Underworld.”

“She’s not illegal,” Nico snapped. “You have Mrs. O’Leary. How is that any different?” 

“Why don’t you let Mr. D know and we’ll find out.” Nico blanched, and Percy felt like maybe that was the wrong thing to say. Clearly the cat was important to him. “Never mind, I was only joking. I won’t tell anyone, so don’t worry, okay?”

Nico nodded, but he still looked uneasy as he buckled his sword around his waist and went to the door. He didn’t try and hold Will’s hand again as he passed by. “Ready. Now let’s go kick some newbie but.” He said, and Percy followed him out of the cabin.


	3. Chapter 3: Will

Will and Nico sat together in the tiny infirmary office. It had been a very long, very boring day. Between dealing with the lice problem and catching up on old paperwork, Will had just about had enough. He was anxious that the lice would spread to other cabins, and he had no idea how he had managed to get so behind in the office (if he were being honest, having ADHD and dyslexia didn’t make paperwork easy, that’s for sure). Having Nico for company helped, it always did, but there was only so much Nico could do in the infirmary. That day he had mostly just sat quietly next to Will, putting something away when Will asked, or checking what items needed to be restocked for the inventory. At the moment he was scribbling on the back of an old file folder with a crayola maker. 

Will sighed and finally put down the piece of paper he had been reading. He checked off the last item in his notebook, closed it with a dull thump, and leaned back in his chair to stretch. Nico looked up from his doodles. 

“I just have one more small thing to do today, then we can go to dinner. Bailey needs to get her stitches removed before she can go back to her cabin.”

Nico nodded. He had been particularly quiet that day. Will wondered if something was up, though he hadn’t seen any of the other signs that Nico was struggling. He made a mental note to check in with him at dinner. He was about to leave the room when the lightbulb flickered in the ceiling. It wasn’t the first time that day. Will frowned. “Make that two more things. That lightbulb needs to be changed. It’s going to drive me nuts. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Will shut the door behind him as he went back into the main room of the infirmary. There was only the one patient, so it was quiet. One of will’s siblings was going around checking on supplies, like they did at the end of every day. He quickly collected what he needed to remove the stitches and set to work. It was a simple task. The cut hadn’t been that bad really, just a small gash caused by an accident in training, and it only required three stitches in the end. The only reason she had had to stay was because of a minor concussion. The kid had kept excitedly asking Will if it was going to scar. Will had told her that that was a morbid thing to hope for, but he had been smiling. So many of the campers had internal wounds that would never heal, and he couldn’t fault this one for her innocence. 

He had just taken out the first suture when a loud bang came from the office, as if something had been knocked over. Will’s sibling paused in his bustling, Will’s hand froze on Bailey’s arm, and all three of them looked towards the door. 

“Nico?” Will called nervously. “Is everything okay?” 

A moment later the office door flew open and Nico came racing out of the room, a look of terror on his face. Will leapt to his feet as his sibling backed up to get out of Nico’s way. He streaked right past Will, ignoring his shouts, and shot out of the infirmary. 

Will stood there, feeling confused and torn. He glanced back at the office door, which had banged into the wall so roughly it had left a dent behind. It was dark inside the office. Is that what had scared Nico? He fought the urge to run after him. He didn’t know what to do. On the one hand, he was in the middle of removing a patient’s stitches. He couldn’t just leave. But on the other hand, his boyfriend was obviously in distress and he wanted, no needed, to help. 

“You can go,” Bailey said, in her sweet, chipper voice. She could clearly tell what Will was thinking. “I don’t mind.”

Will steadied his shaking hands and sat back down in the chair. “No.” He said firmly. “I have a job to finish.” He continued to carefully cut away the remaining stitches. He had a professional obligation as the camp’s head medic. He couldn’t let his personal emotions impact the quality of care he was giving in the infirmary. It wouldn’t be healthy for him to start dropping everything and anything the moment he thought Nico needed him to. Still, he felt immensely guilty. Nico needed him. Staying didn’t feel like the right choice, but neither did going after Nico. 

_He knows what to do_ , Will told himself. Nico had come so far. He had strategies in place, techniques and tools he could use when he panicked or relapsed. Will had to trust him to know what he needed, and to trust him to seek out help from someone else if he couldn’t handle it on his own. Chiron, Mr. D, or even one of Will’s siblings would be more than willing to help Nico out. Will _had_ to trust Nico. 

Bailey winced as Will gently rubbed antiseptic ointment on the area he had removed the sutures from. Will looked up apologetically, but she just smiled bravely and waved away his concern. 

“Well doc?” She asked. “Be honest. Am I gonna be horribly scarred for life?”

Her humoristic attitude made Will smile, in spite of what he was feeling about Nico. “I told you, you’re a demigod. And this is hardly a serious battle wound. You’ll be more than okay.” 

“Darn,” Bailey muttered. 

“Don’t worry, your time will come,” Will said, patting her shoulder as he stood up to tidy up the space. “You’re free to go, but take it easy for the next little while. Second concussions are far more likely to be serious, and they happen more easily than you might think. And keep the wound clean while it finishes healing.”

“Thanks Will! You’re the best doctor I ever had!” She skipped happily out of the infirmary, leaving Will alone with his sibling. 

When Will had finished cleaning and washed his hands, he remembered the burnt-out lightbulb in the office, and he stared at the office door, still standing open. He ought to get it done with and find a replacement right now, but Nico… 

As if reading his mind, his sibling said “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it. You go find Nico.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course. Go.”

Will nodded gratefully. He hung up his lab coat on the wall and left. 

The evening air was like a breath of fresh air after being cooped up in the office all day, without even a window to let sunlight in. As he walked to Cabin thirteen, he distractedly tried to admire the rays of sun that were streaming through the camp at a pretty angle. Normally, the sunlight would revive him, but he only felt anxiety, hoping Nico was there in his cabin, hoping he was okay. 

He knocked softly on the door, and when he didn’t hear an answer, he nervously cracked it open. Thank the gods, Nico was there. Unconscious in his bed, but there. He was lying on his back, his messy hair covering his face, and his mouth open slightly. Bia was on his chest, sitting like a loaf, with her tail curled around her paws and her nose pressed up against his chin. She was purring, and the light was on.

Will relaxed at the sight. Nico was okay. He wasn’t freaking out. He wasn’t having a meltdown. He was just sleeping with his cat. Will didn’t want to wake him, so he quietly closed the door and went to dinner on his own. 

An hour later, he was back at the doorstep of the Hades cabin, with a plate of Nico’s favourite food and a bottle of Gatorade in his hands. He didn’t bother to knock this time. Nico would still be sleeping for sure, and he didn’t want to wake him up by startling him. He put the plate and the bottle down on top of a shelf, then he sat down on the edge of Nico’s bed. Bia was curled up beside him now, not lying on top of him, but she was still pressed close to his body. 

Will reached out a hand and shook Nico gently by the shoulder, reluctant to wake him up. “Hey sunshine, it’s time for some dinner.”

Nico blinked dumbly at him for a moment, then he seemed to come to his senses, and he groaned and sat up, stretching awkwardly so he didn’t throw Bia off the bed in the process. He glanced at the plate. “Is that…”

Will grinned. “Yeah, I thought I might need to tempt you into eating tonight.”

“Well, it worked,” Nico said. He reached out his hands, as if to ask for his dinner, and Will obliged by handing it to him. Normally, he considered a bed to be the least ideal place to eat a meal, but Nico needed to eat, and it was too late to take him back out to the dining pavilion. 

Nico ate quickly. Will remembered that the two of them hadn’t made it out to the pavilion for a proper lunch. They had just munched on the infirmary’s snack stash all day. Will had been a little extra hungry himself at dinner. He sat quietly while Nico ate. He occasionally had to drag back a curious Bia, who clearly expected to have her share, despite already having been fed that day. 

“Sorry girl,” Will said, dragging her away for the fourth time. “You’ve already got your dinner. Let Nico eat in peace.” He was going to pick her up and put her on the floor, but Nico stopped him with a hand on his wrist. Will left her alone.

When Nico had cleaned his plate (a rare occurrence, he usually left something behind), Will crawled over to him so they were sitting side by side on the bed. Will had to subtly fight Bia to let him touch Nico. 

“So,” Will started, uncertain. “What happened today? In the office?”

Nico’s positive mood dimmed a little, but he didn’t close himself off. That was a good sign. “I’m sorry.” he whispered. “The light bulb went out. It’s really dark in there with no windows and all. It just startled me.” 

“No need to be sorry,” Will tried to sound nonchalant, but it frustrated him to no end how Nico would apologize for every little thing, from having a panic attack to not feeling hungry. 

Nico took a deep breath. “Yeah. Right. Sor…” He cut himself off before he could say it again and gave Will a sheepish smile.

“But you’re okay now?” Will prompted. “Did having a nap help?”

“Well, I kind of fell asleep because I shadow travelled my way here. But yes. I had Bia so I was okay.” 

“That’s ironic. The guy who got startled by a dark room jumping right into the shadows to get away.”

“That’s different,” Nico said defensively. “I _control_ the shadows. They don’t sneak up on me when I’m alone in a tiny room. That was like… like…” He didn’t finish, but Will knew what he was talking about. Tartarus, the jar, and all the other, less overpowering traumas Nico had experienced. He could understand that well enough. “Anyway, I’m okay now. Bia helped. I think she knew I was upset, because she just curled right up on top of me.”

Will didn’t tell him that Bia always went straight to him for attention. If Bia helped him, then she helped him. That was all there was to it. Then it was Will’s turn to feel guilty again. 

“Hey, I’m sorry I couldn’t go after you.” He said. “I just, I couldn't abandon a patient in the middle of a procedure.”

“Now look who’s saying sorry for no reason,” Nico teased. Then his voice turned serious. “Really though, I understand. I can take care of myself.” Will looked at him, and they both knew that he was thinking about how Nico had fought against receiving care, medical or otherwise, on multiple occasions. “What I mean is, I know how to handle it better, the flashbacks and nightmares and stuff. And I have people I can go to, besides you, if I need to. And I have Bia.”

The cat blinked at him slowly, and Will felt a rush of affection for her. She was good for Nico. That much was certain. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just made up a random kid to be in this chapter as a side character, because it was easier than trying to find a character that already exists lol. Same with Will's sibling, just a generic Apollo kid, sorry.


	4. Chapter 4: Nico

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter and the next are both Nico's pov. Finally lol  
> Also there's a teeny bit of outdated language used by Nico in this chapter, but it's nothing too intense. And it's not meant to be used as an insult, it just makes sense that he wouldn't know the modern terminology for a lot of things. If you want to know what he says, see the notes at the end.

Nico was tired. He had been with Will all day at the infirmary. He was practically considered a nurse by now, what with the way Will and his siblings used him in there. He usually groaned and complained the whole time, but secretly he enjoyed helping them out. It gave him something to do, a purpose so to speak. He could pretend that things didn’t tend to die around him when he was actively helping people to not die.

Unfortunately however, the most pressing concern at the infirmary these days was the lice issue, and he had spent the entire day picking dead nits out of the Aphrodite kids’ hair and listening to them whine and complain the whole time. They didn’t complain about _him_ , of course. The younger ones were still too weary around him to try irritating the Ghost King, even if they generally tolerated him most of the time, and the older ones were more tolerable, preferring to pout and sulk rather than to actively cry about it. But Nico still had to listen to them complain to Will and his siblings about the neck pain that came from the long and annoying process, and about how their hair was being ruined. The guys refused to just shave their head, which would be the normal treatment for guys with lice, and nobody had even bothered to suggest it to any of the girls. Even the one girl who had a pixie cut would have smacked them if they even suggested it. 

So instead they had gone through what felt like gallons of head lice killer and spent hours upon hours searching the kids heads for living ones, teeny tiny section by teeny tiny section. It was torture. 

Nico was ready to curl up in bed for a long, long nap, but as he and Will approached the semi-circle of cabins he noticed a strange commotion. Will noticed it too, because he glanced curiously at Nico and instead of approaching his own cabin, he went towards the small crowd of kids circling around whatever it was that was holding their attention. Some of them were Apollo kids, and one of them spotted Will and Nico approaching and called out. “Will come look!”

Nico felt like pointing out that they were already on their way to look at what was going on, but he didn’t. When they got closer, some of the kids moved out of the way to reveal what they were fussing over, and Nico’s heart almost stopped. 

Bia was on the ground, blinking at a little girl with braids who was scratching her head. Will froze, and without thinking, Nico shouted “Bia!” 

Instantly the cat looked up, and upon seeing Nico she galloped playfully over to him and started her usual greeting of weaving around his feet, rubbing her cheeks all over his shoes. Nico bent over and reluctantly picked her up. He couldn’t pretend she didn’t belong to him anyway, not after he had called her name and she had come running over like a well trained puppy. 

The girl with the braids stared at them with heart eyes, like she was fawning over a celebrity. “Oh my gosh,” She chirped. “Is she yours? She’s so cute.” 

The boy kneeling next to her elbowed her in the ribs, but she ignored him. She just kept staring up at Nico and Bia, waiting for a reply. But he didn’t know what to say. Obviously Bia was his, but he had wanted to keep her a secret. He felt embarrassed that he needed her so badly, and that he was afraid she would be taken away when people found out. It was as embarrassing as people knowing about him and Will used to be. Well, maybe not _quite_ as embarrassing, but it was up there. He wanted to be accepted at camp, but he didn’t want people to see him as weak. 

Without responding to the girl, he turned on his heels and raced away, as quickly as he could with Bia in his grasp. He ignored Will calling his name and the little girl’s sad protests. Bia struggled, apparently not appreciating being carried around by Nico after getting so much attention from the other campers, but Nico held on to her tightly, and he didn’t put her down until they were safely inside cabin thirteen. She tried scratching at the bottom of the door, clearing wanting to get out again, but the door was shut tightly, and she quickly gave up, turning her back on Nico and stalking away to curl up on his bed. 

Nico stood in the middle of his cabin, trying to process through that he was feeling. He was embarrassed, yes, but he was also scared. He was so attached to the little black cat. He had never thought he could be close to a living animal like that, but he had become dependent on her. It was so much easier to sleep with her curled up next to him. And on the nights that he did wake up to a nightmare, she was right there to ground him, until he felt safe enough to fall back asleep. When she was gone, what would he do then? 

_She’s not gone._ He tried to tell himself. He was worrying about something that might not even happen. But he couldn’t get the thought out of his mind.

Soon, Will was knocking on his cabin door. When Nico didn’t respond, Will let himself in. He stepped up behind Nico and wrapped his arms around him, and Nico let him. His warmth flooded Nico’s body, and Nico relaxed a little. 

“How do you think she got out?” Will wondered out loud. 

“I don’t know,” Nico sniffed. “Maybe she just slipped out behind me when I left earlier today.”

“Maybe.” Will replied. 

They were silent for a moment, and then Nico wriggled around in Will’s arms, so they were hugging properly. He sniffled again. “I can’t let them take her away from me Will. I… I need her.”

“I’m sure Mr. D will be understanding. After all, you said it yourself. Percy has Mrs. O’Leary.”

“But she lives in the arena,” Nico said. “And I can’t just let Bia run around camp by herself. She’d probably get eaten by something.”

“We’ll figure something out.” Will said reassuringly. 

“Can’t you just, tell Mr. D to let me keep her? Like doctor’s orders? She can be like one of those therapy animals, you know?”

Will sighed and untangled himself from Nico’s arms. Nico followed him numbly towards his bed, and as soon as they were sitting down, he hugged him again, burying his face in Will’s chest.

“It doesn’t really work like that, sunshine,” Will told him gently. “Emotional support animals aren’t the same as medical service dogs. And besides, even if I could just write you a prescription for cat therapy, mortal laws don’t really apply to us at camp. To the government, we don’t even exist, so who’s going to enforce them?”

He knew Will was right, and Nico stifled a little sob. He didn’t want to cry. He hated crying, especially in front of other people. But with Will it was all too easy to let his guard down. 

Will rubbed his back soothingly. “I’ll do my best though.” He said. “Maybe you should just bring it up to Mr. D yourself. Or Chiron. You won’t know what they’ll say until you try, and it seems like it’s already too late to stop them finding out.”

There was a knock at the door, and Nico almost jumped out of his skin. He looked at Will like a deer in headlights. If that was Mr. D knocking right now, they were screwed. Not only about Bia, but for being alone in the cabin together. They would never get away with that again. 

“Do you want me to answer it?” Will asked him quietly. 

“No.” Nico said firmly. If it _was_ Mr. D, then it would look even worse if Will answered the door. Nico rubbed his eyes and sniffed hard, and then stood and opened the door himself.

Thankfully, it wasn’t Mr. D who had knocked, but this wasn’t much better. Chiron stood in front of Nico’s cabin, his arms crossed over his chest. “William Solace,” He called, without even greeting Nico first. “You can come out too please.”

Nico’s face got as hot as Will’s body usually felt. Chiron knew about them. It hadn’t been a strict secret for a very long while, and Chiron had clearly never cared one way or another. He had trained countless Greek heroes, and Nico knew the old stories as well as anyone else at Camp Half Blood. Apparently Nico had been the odd one out in his beliefs from the start, which had been a _very_ strange realization. Even Will’s own father didn’t restrict himself to only female mortals. If two men could produce children together, Nico suspected Will would have a hell of a lot more siblings than he already did. 

But acceptance wasn’t the issue anymore. The issue was how often Will snuck into Nico’s cabin, and that they had been hiding a living animal for several weeks now. 

Will appeared sheepishly next to Nico. “Hey Chiron,” He gave off one of his winning smiles, but he hardly should have bothered. It didn’t change Chiron’s expression. Will cleared his throat awkwardly and shut the door behind him. “So…” 

“Walk with me,” Chiron said, and it wasn’t like Nico and Will had any other choice, so they did. At least if they were walking Nico didn’t have to look Chiron in the eye. 

When they had left the circle of cabins, Chiron spoke again. “I hear you have a new cabin mate, Nico.”

Nico wasn’t sure what to say. 

“When were you going to let Mr. D or I know?”

Nico opened his mouth, but Will spoke before he could respond. “She was a stray sir,” he said quickly. “Nico rescued her. She was practically starving. He’s been taking care of her. She’s got food and water and toys, and I’ve been reading about veterinary medicine, which, honestly, someone should have done a long time ago considering we have horses and pegasi to take care of, and she’s just attached to him now.” 

Chiron waited silently for Will to finish, and then just said, “Nico?”

Nico had been hoping Will’s explanation would be enough, but Chiron clearly wanted to hear it from Nico himself. Without thinking it through first, Nico blurted out, “Percy gets to have a hellhound!”

Chiron blinked at him, then he shocked Nico by laughing out loud. He cackled heartily, like he hadn’t heard something so funny in a long time. Nico glanced over at Will, but Will only looked back and shrugged. Nico stared nervously at Chiron, waiting for him to stop. When he finally did, he wiped at his eyes, which Nico thought was a little overkill. He hadn’t been laughing _that_ hard. 

“Sorry Nico,” Chiron said, but he didn’t sound sorry. “I shouldn’t have laughed. Clearly you love this cat. It’s nice to see that you’re attached to something here at camp. Other than Will of course.” Nico blushed, and Will grinned. “But why didn’t you let me know? You could have gone on a trip to get supplies. What have you been feeding her?”

“Well, mostly leftover food. Eggs are fine for cats to eat. And most cooked meats. But I did shadow travel out to the city to get her a food and water dish and litter.”

Chiron looked disapproving. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just admit to leaving camp without permission.” 

“Don’t worry sir,” Will said. “He got enough of an earful from me for doing it. No need to punish him any more.” 

“I did say I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that, didn’t I?” 

“Yes sir,” Nico said.

“I cannot, however, pretend that I don’t know you two have been hanging out alone in the cabin. It would look very bad if I let you get away with _that_.”

“But, Chiron-” Will began. Nico didn’t even bother to try and speak up. 

“Don’t try to defend yourselves, boys. You know why that rule is in place, and it applies just as much to the two of you as it does to everyone else. I’m especially disappointed because you’ve been here for so long, especially you Will. You ought to know better. This isn’t ancient Greece, as much as it might feel like it sometimes.”

“Sir,” said Will tentatively, his cheeks getting red. “I know what you’re implying, but I promise that Nico and I…”

“Will!” Cried Nico. He was not about to let his boyfriend make this any more awkward that it already was. It was bad enough that Will was always so touchy-feely. He did not have to give Chiron an up-to-date itinerary of their relationship. They had barely even kissed yet. Nico was still working on that. Not that he would admit it to literally anyone.

“I’m not implying anything Will, and I don’t care to.” Said Chiron. “But you’ve both broken the rules, and you’ll have to be punished.”

Will groaned. Nico just frowned. It couldn’t be worse than spending the day picking lice out of people’s hair. 

“Let’s see,” Chiron pondered for a minute. “The two of you are on stable cleaning duty for the next week.”

“That sounds like more of a punishment for the horses than it does for me,” Nico said dryly. 

“Oh really?” Chiron raised an eyebrow. “I thought you were an animal guy now.”

Will giggled. The sound gave Nico butterflies in his stomach. He always liked it when Will laughed. It was like listening to sirens singing, at least to Nico. Chiron just winked and trotted away towards the Big House, leaving Will and Nico alone again.

“Bia is an exception,” Nico said, even though Chiron was too far out of earshot to hear. “Horses still don’t like me.”

“I wonder why that is?” 

“Maybe because cats are sometimes associated with the occult? I’m fairly certain they can actually see ghosts, not just sense them like other animals can.” 

Will thought for a moment as they began to walk back to the cabins. “During the black plague, the catholic church blamed cats because of their association with the Devil, so they had all the cats they could find killed. But actually, it was the rats who were causing a lot of the spread, not the cats, so you can imagine what happened when they killed off the rat’s biggest predator.”

“We’re _Greek_ , Will. The catholic Devil doesn’t really have anything to do with us.”

“Technically we’re both half Greek. And wasn’t Italy like, heavily catholic in the past?”

Nico resisted the urge to sarcastically remind Will that he had hidden his feelings for so long _specifically_ because he was born into a heavily catholic nation in the thirties. “Yeah, well, considering I’m the illegitimate child of a Greek god and I’m in a relationship with another illegitimate child of a Greek god, who also happens to be male, I don’t think anything about me would go over well in the catholic church. Even my mother having Bianca and me was a horrible scandal.”

Will bumped into his shoulder playfully. “Come on, a lot of religious people are pretty chill nowadays, especially in this part of America. My mom’s from Texas, for gods’ sake, and she’s cool.”

“Yeah, I know, but it wasn’t like that back then. The only thing that could have made this,” He waved a hand between him and Will to indicate he was referring to their relationship. “More problematic is if we were crossdressers too.”

“Nico, the proper term is transgender, and that’s okay too. Unless you’re talking about drag queens, in which case I’m not entirely opposed-”

Nico cut him off. “Unless I’m talking about _what_?”

Will grinned. “One day, I’m going to take you to a drag show.” He tapped his finger on his chin. “Maybe next June…” 

Something about the way Will said that made Nico make a mental note to put up a fight when Will finally did ask him to go to a _drag show_ , whatever that was. He knew he’d give in eventually, but he wasn’t going to do it easily. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those wondering, Nico uses the word "crossdresser". In my experience, it's not all that bad of a word but it is generally considered to be outdated and can be used with negative connotations, so I just wanted to be safe and give a warning. 
> 
> I actually don't know if the things about cats and the plague is entirely true, or if it's just a myth, but I thought it would be interesting to mention.


	5. Chapter 5: Nico

Nico sat up in bed late one night, with Bia on his lap, curled up and purring contentedly. He had had a bad dream that had woken him up, and Bia had climbed on to him right away. It was so common for demigods to have nightmares, and Nico was fairly certain that he would be dealing with them on some level for the rest of his life, but they had gotten so much better than they used to be. Not only did he know how to calm himself down when he woke up in a panic, but they had become much less frequent. Then when Bia had shown up, his sleep schedule had only gotten better. He woke up way less often in the night, had an easier time getting up in the mornings (Will no longer came into his cabin, only knocked loudly on the door, or tossed rocks at his window), and he napped less throughout the day. Unless he were to use his powers, of course.

This night was proving to be a little rougher than he had experienced lately, and while he could have gotten back to sleep if he wanted to, he didn’t really feel like it. There was something on his table that seemed to be calling to him. It was a silver-coloured harness and a matching ten-foot leash. Percy and Annabeth had given it to him as a gift the day before, because they felt bad that Bia had to stay shut up in the cabin when she loved being out and getting attention from everyone. She had managed to escape a second time after the first incident, which thankfully Nico was around to notice, and he went chasing after her the moment she slipped past the door. Mrs O’Leary had nearly smooshed her in her attempt to befriend the tiny creature. Maybe if Nico took her out on the leash she wouldn’t try and run out on her own anymore. At least that’s what Annabeth had said, but Nico hadn’t tried it yet. He was pretty sure that cats didn’t like being on a leash. 

Then again, Bia seemed to be an exception to a lot of the rules that Nico thought were universal. Like the fact that she didn’t seem to hate water, for example. She sometimes played in her water dish, making a mess all over the cabin floor, and once she had tried to get into the shower with Nico, who made sure to completely close the bathroom door whenever he showered from that point on. Showering with her in the room was just _weird_. 

He considered the leash one more time, and then he looked at Bia. “How would you feel about going for a little walk?” He asked. 

Bia looked up at him and cocked her head curiously. Nico decided to give the harness and leash a try. What was the worst that could happen? That he’d have to tell Percy and Annabeth that their gift wasn’t appreciated by Bia? 

Gently nudging Bia off his lap, he slipped out of his bed and picked up the harness. He brought it over to Bia and let her sniff it generously, before he wrapped the smaller part around her neck and clipped it shut. She didn’t seem to mind, so he clipped the larger part around her belly. Bia didn’t even react. 

_Okay, she’s officially the world’s weirdest cat_. Nico thought. But as she gazed up at him, he felt immensely grateful for her. Nico clipped the leash onto the harness and walked to the door. Bia raced to the door in front of him, as she always did when he went to leave. But Nico hesitated. There was one more gift from Percy and Annabeth sitting next to where the leash had been. It was a roughly drawn map of camp half blood, with a path sketched in leading to the beach at the Long Island Sound. After observing it carefully the day before, Nico had noticed why the path seemed to take an indirect route: it was hidden from any possible view from the big house, or from any of the cabins. There was a large X scribbled in at the end of the path, on the beach close to the forest edge. Nico had asked them what the map was for, but all he had been offered was a sly smile from Percy, and Annabeth saying, “Since you and Will can’t hang out in your cabin anymore, we figured you might like somewhere with a little privacy. We’re passing this on to you in good conscience, so don’t abuse it too much, got it?”

Nico had blushed furiously, but he didn’t have time to think of a sarcastic remark, because Percy and Annabeth had walked away before he could. Percy had turned his head only briefly, to wink at Nico and then took Annabeth’s hand and moved on. 

He had intended to chuck the map away, embarrassed that Percy and Annabeth had made such an assumption about him and Will, but now he reconsidered. It might be nice to have a place he and Will could go to be alone together. There was never any pressure with Will. It didn’t have to mean anything more than Nico wanted it to. In a split-second decision, he snatched up the map, stuffed it in his coat pocket, and left the cabin. Bia followed him out like a shadow. 

The outside air was cool, but it didn’t affect Nico too much. He was used to feeling cold. The only thing that could usually warm him up was Will Solace, and thank the gods he had Will’s affections all to himself. Will often joked about holding Nico’s cold hands, saying something stupid about how together they achieved thermodynamic equilibrium, or some other dumb thing. It was one of Will’s weirder methods of flirting, but Nico couldn’t possibly complain. 

Nico made his way towards the Apollo cabin, letting the moonlight comfort him on his way. Unsurprisingly, Bia followed alongside him, only pausing occasionally to pounce on an insect or a long piece of grass. Vaguely, Nico wondered if he should be waking Will up at this time of night, but he remembered what Will had said to him the first night Nico had had Bia. _I would have gone with you though, if you had asked me too._ Nico hoped he had been being honest. 

The Apollo cabin’s door was unlocked, as usual. Just in case someone had a medical emergency, they could come in and wake Will without waking the entire cabin by banging on the door. Since Will was the best healer in the entire camp (Nico thought of this proudly), there was no use waking up another kid if there was a serious emergency. Will would know if he needed backup. 

Nico left Bia outside, tying her leash to a column by the door to make sure she didn’t get away. He wasn’t sure it was a good idea to leave her by herself, but he also thought it would be a bad idea to bring her in. The younger Apollo kids were in love with her, and she was likely to make noise when she realized there were other people in there. 

So Nico went in alone, closing the door silently behind him. He tried to blend into the shadows, but it was difficult. Even at night, the Apollo cabin wasn’t very dark. Half the kids had fairy lights hung up in their bunks, and there were glow in the dark stars stuck to the ceiling. It was kind of nice actually, Nico admitted reluctantly. At least, there was a part of him that liked it a lot better than his own dark, gloomy cabin. Maybe he preferred the darkness at one point in time, but now he was more comfortable with light. A side effect of being with Will, probably. Nico hoped it wouldn’t go away.

He found Will easily, and for a moment he just stood and stared at his sleeping boyfriend, without feeling an ounce of shame. He was so pretty when he slept, like the picture-perfect image of a well-admired Greek hero. His golden hair flopped down in front of his face, covering Nico’s view of his eyes, but it was okay, because they weren’t open for him to admire anyway. 

Okay, so _maybe_ Will snored a bit, and _maybe_ his lips hung open in a slightly awkward, gaping position, and he might have been drooling a little. But to Nico he was perfect. He could have stayed there admiring Will all night, but he was afraid to leave Bia alone for any longer, so he crouched down and put his hand on Will’s shoulder, shaking him gently.

Will spluttered into consciousness. “Nico,” He said, pushing himself up so he could look at Nico properly. “Is something wrong? Are you sick?”

Nico shushed him quickly, looking around him anxiously to make sure none of Will’s siblings were stirring. “Everything is fine,” He whispered, as quietly as he could. But I um… I have a surprise for you.” 

Will blinked at him. “Um, okay?”

“Come outside. I’ll give you a minute to get up- if you want to, that is. And put a sweater on or something. It’s chilly.”

Nico left Will to get himself out of bed and dressed. He was relieved when he found Bia right where he had left her, waiting loyally for him to return. He waited for Will to come out to meet him. It was only a couple of minutes, but it felt like an eternity when Will finally stepped out of the cabin, no sweater or jacket in sight. Just his pajama pants, the old T-shirt he had been sleeping in, and a pair of flip flops. Nico should have known. It took a lot more than a midnight chill to make this child of Apollo cold. 

Will grinned when he saw Bia. “Is this the surprise? I can’t believe she actually doesn’t mind the harness!” 

“She even walked beside me the whole way here. I didn’t have to carry her or anything,” Nico announced proudly. “But no, that’s not the surprise. Look.” He pulled the map out of his pocket and showed it to Will.

“Where did you get this?” Will asked. “And what’s it for?”

“Annabeth and Percy gave it to me. They said it’s a place where we can have, well… some privacy. I wasn’t going to bother with it, honestly Percy was kind of annoying about it, but I sort of want company tonight. Just you. Alone. And since we can’t be in my cabin anymore…” He let his words trail off, hoping Will was getting the right idea, but not _too much_ of the right idea. He thought maybe he could see Will’s cheeks getting red, but he wasn’t sure because it was too dark to tell.

“You want to sneak away to the beach? Together?’

“Well, when you say it like that…”

“What about the harpies?”

“We’ll avoid them. But I can also handle them if I need to.” He didn’t offer further explanation.

“Okay, let’s do it.” There was a mischievous light in his eyes, and Nico felt his own excitement growing too. _This_ is the sort of thing teenagers were supposed to get up too, not constantly fighting monsters, training and studying and playing war games, just to survive. They were supposed to sneak out their bedroom windows in the middle of the night to meet boys or girls their parents didn’t know about. They were supposed to say they were studying at their best friend’s house when really they were doing something mildly illegal with the person they had a crush on. Sneaking off to the beach to be alone together, it all felt so beautifully _normal._

Nico held the map in one hand and Bia’s leash in the other while they followed the path. True to what Nico had determined by looking at the piece of paper, there was no possible way they could be seen from any of the cabins, or from the big house. This must have been Annabeth’s doing. She may have been smart, but she was no goody-two-shoes. As they walked, Nico noticed Will’s eyes fixating on Nico’s occupied hands. After a while, he looped the handle of the leash over his wrist, and bumped the back of his hand against Will’s, who took it without hesitation. They held hands all the way to where the path ended on the beach, further away than campers usually went. 

It was more rocky here than sandy, so it wasn’t very comfortable to walk on, and for a moment Nico wondered if maybe Percy and Annabeth had been playing a joke on him. But while Percy might do something like that, he was sure Annabeth wouldn’t. He kept leading Will forward, more slowly than before because of the terrain. It was harder for Will because he was only wearing flip flops. Finally, they came upon a rocky outcrop lining the edge of the forest. Within the rocky area, there was a cave scooped out of the side like an oblong semi-circle. Its entrance was fairly wide and faced the water, but you would have to be directly in front of it to see inside. 

Nico understood why Annabeth and Percy had liked this place. It felt safe. With the sound of the water lapping at the beach, and the easy privacy from prying eyes, it felt like a place where a person could allow themselves to be vulnerable. That was something that all demigods wanted, deep down. Safety, and the freedom to be vulnerable, things which were incredibly difficult for them to come by.

“Wow,” Will said, stepping inside the cave. It was sandy inside, unlike the beach it occupied. The rock formation had interesting patterns on the inside walls, like layers of cake all squished together. “It’s really cool of Percy and Annabeth to show us this place.”

Nico only nodded in response. He was afraid to speak in case his voice betrayed how sensitive he was feeling. He had misunderstood Percy and Annabeth’s intentions. This gift was about healing, not about playing wingman. It just so happened that he had opened up the most to Will, and they knew he felt safer with Will than anyone else. 

Well, maybe Percy _had_ been teasing him a little bit, too.

Bia was doing laps around the cave, sniffing intently as she went. She found a bug crawling in the sand and ate it, looking proudly up at Nico and Will as if saying “Did you see that? I caught my own snack!” 

“Bia likes it too,” Will said. He followed Bia’s lead as she found a comfortable spot and crouched down, tucking her paws under her and her tail tightly around her body. Will sat down and rested against the back wall. “It’s so peaceful. I could get used to this.”

Nico felt like maybe, he could too. At first, peace had scared him. What was he if he wasn’t constantly fighting for his life? But he had learned to accept it, to find purpose in the small parts of his existence. Helping Will treat capture the flag injuries, not battle wounds. Canoeing in the lake and trying to avoid falling in, not avoiding falling into the rivers of the underworld. He would never truly escape the struggles of being a demigod, none of them would, but he was learning to exist as just plain old Nico too. 

Will held out one arm as an invitation, and Nico accepted. He lowered himself onto the ground, ignoring the fact that was going to have sand in his shoes for weeks, and melted into Will’s side. Will draped his arm around Nico’s shoulders, and absentmindedly began to run his fingers up and down Nico’s upper arm. They sat together like that for who knows how long, watching the water and watching Bia go from playing in the sand to trying to snuggle up in between them, over and over again, until it must have been very close to dawn. 

“Hey Will?” Nico said, finally breaking the silence. 

“Mmhmm?” 

“I want to tell you something.”

Will, who’s eyelids had been drooping, like he was one lullaby away from falling asleep, perked up a little. “What is it?’

“I um…” Nico paused to take a deep breath. He didn’t know why what he wanted to say was so hard to get out, but it was. Still, being in the cave, alone with Bia and Will, made him feel safe enough to _want_ to say it. “Will, I need you to know that I… I really care about you. A lot. And sometimes, well, sometimes I’m afraid I’m going to lose you, like I lost my mother. Like I lost Bianca. I… I’m afraid that it’s in my destiny, to lose all the people I’m close to.”

Will moved his arm, the one that wasn’t already wrapped around Nico’s shoulders, so that he was hugging Nico tightly to his chest. “Oh Nico,” He said gently. “Of course that’s not true. You deserve love and friendship, and a family, just as much as anyone else at this camp, as much as anyone else in the world.”

Nico nodded. “I know that. And I’m so, so grateful for you. And for Hazel and Percy and Annabeth and all the others. But I can’t help that I feel that way sometimes.”

“I understand. But Nico,” Will’s expression turned a bit more serious. “I can’t promise that I’ll be around forever, you know that, right? I wish I could, but people die. It’s a part of life. And demigods, well... “ He shrugged. “It wouldn’t be right for me to make a promise I know I might not be able to keep.”

Nico looked up at him. The thought of losing Will flooded him with sadness, but he wouldn’t ask Will to make a promise like that. He just had to trust in his own strength, to recognize that there were people in his life who cared about him, besides Will. He would never be truly alone again, not if he didn’t want to be. He was certain of that. 

“I know,” Nico said. “I just… wanted you to know.”

Will squeezed him slightly, as if he too, was a little bit afraid Nico was going to melt away sometimes. Will must have insecurities too, he thought. Maybe one day Will would share something like that with Nico. He hoped that Will felt like he could. He had worked so hard to get Nico to open up to him, it would only be fair to share in each other’s struggles equally. 

But Will just yawned. “We should get back before anyone starts to wake up. If I’m not in bed my siblings will know something is up.”

Nico pouted, but he knew Will was right. He reluctantly let Will pull his arms away, and gently poked Bia, who was snoozing at their feet, with the toe of his boot. She perked up and twitched her ears. 

“Time to go,” Nico told her. “One of us has a reputation to maintain.” He gestured to Will. 

“I’d gladly tarnish it for you, sunshine, but do you really want to risk the wrath of Chiron if he caught us sneaking back into our cabins so early in the morning? We’ve already been in trouble once.”

_Wrath_ was a bit of an exaggeration, but Nico definitely didn’t want another scene. He stood up, stretching his neck and flexing his arms, and together they made their way back down the beach and through the camp, following the same path as before. The camp was still totally silent, and it would remain that way until the sun actually broke over the horizon, waking up the Apollo kids. 

As they approached Will’s cabin, Bia got more and more excited, stretching her leash tight in her hurry to get there. Nico hoped she wouldn’t make too much noise when Will tried to sneak back in. 

“Thank you,” Will said when they were in front of the door. 

“For showing you the cave?” 

“Well, yes. But also for asking me to come with you, for letting me in. I’m glad you listened to me.”

Bia was getting excited, weaving in and out of their legs and tangling them up in the leash. Nico bent down to try and scoop her up so he could pull his feet out of the loops she had made, but she slipped out of his grip quickly. He stood and sighed in frustration. He tried to kick away the leash with one foot, but in the moment when his foot wasn’t on the ground, Bia chose to jerk on the leash, and he lost his balance, falling right into Will awkwardly. Nico cursed, but Will only laughed. 

“So now you’re falling for me in the literal sense too?” 

“Shut up,” Nico mumbled, trying even harder to kick off the tangled leash. But Will distracted him from the task by putting a hand under his chin and turning his face so that Nico had to look him in the eyes. Gods, he could drown in those blue eyes so easily. He forgot all about the leash at his feet, or that he was standing out in the open, in front of Will’s cabin where all his siblings were sleeping. 

Will’s eyes glanced down to Nico’s mouth. His lips were so close. It would be so easy to close the gap. “Can I?” Will whispered softly.

Nico gave the tiniest, nervous nod, and closed his eyes.

Carefully, Will guided their lips together, and Nico stood as still as a statue. Will’s lips brushed his own, just the tiniest, most gentle feeling of pressure, and Nico felt a familiar spark flicker between them. Will was testing the waters, trying not to move too fast. He was waiting for Nico to reciprocate. 

Nico let his instincts take over. He reached up to tangle his fingers in Will’s soft curls and kissed him back. He felt Will practically melt into goo in his grasp, and suddenly it was Nico holding Will up, Nico doing the kissing. Will just let Nico take over. He had no idea what he was doing, but he didn’t care. It felt as natural as walking, like Nico had been doing this his whole life. He got lost in the waves of excitement and the feeling of freedom. 

Then there was a loud, anxious wail that came from the ground, and they broke apart quickly, starting at Bia on the ground at their feet. There was no way she hadn’t just woken up half the Apollo cabin. 

“Go,” Will told him, breathless with the laughter that was struggling to bubble out of him after the kiss. “Quick, before they come out here.”

Without a word Nico bent down and yanked the leash off his ankles, and he scooped up Bia and raced away into the shadows. He didn’t stop until he was inside his cabin, panting and sweating. He dropped Bia ungracefully on his bed and unclipped the harness from around her. 

“Way to ruin that,” Nico said sternly. She only cocked her head and started at him without blinking. He softened a little. “But then again I suppose I also have you to thank for it.”

Bia purred, and he smiled and scratched her chin.

He had a lot to be thankful for.


End file.
